Mediterranean Drifter Analyses

LONG-TERM GOALS: To contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of marginal seas such as the Mediterranean by collecting and interpreting accurate Lagrangian observations of currents and satellite measurements of water mass properties (e.g., temperature, salinity, chlorophyll concentration). In particular, to study the variability of the surface velocity and temperature/chlorophyll fields in selected basins of the Mediterranean at the meso-, seasonal and interannual scales and to assess the impact of the wind forcing and fresh water runoffs.Award #: N0001401WR2014

Variability of the Surface Circulation and temperature in the Adriatic Sea

LONG-TERM GOALS: My long-term goals are to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of marginal seas such as the Adriatic by collecting and interpreting observations of currents and water mass properties (e.g., temperature, salinity, chlorophyll concentration). In particular I am very interested in studying the impact of the wind forcing and fresh water runoffs on the circulation. Also of interest to me is the study of the variability of the surface velocity and temperature fields in the Adriatic at the meso-, seasonal and interannual scales.Award #: N0001498WR3009

Mediterranean Drifter Analyses

LONG-TERM GOALS: To contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of marginal seas such as the Mediterranean by collecting and interpreting accurate Lagrangian observations of currents and satellite measurements of water mass properties (e.g., temperature, salinity, chlorophyll concentration). In particular, to study the variability of the surface velocity and temperature/chlorophyll fields in selected basins of the Mediterranean at the meso-, seasonal and interannual scales and to assess the impact of the wind forcing and fresh water runoffs.Award #: N0001402WR2020

Near-inertial and diurnal motions in the trajectories of mixed layer drifters

We analyze the near-inertial/diurnal motions in the trajectories of surface mixed layer drifters in the California Current System between 19N and 36N. The observed near-inertial or diurnal oscillations are very intermittent in time and have a time scale of about 10 inertial periods. Using a simple slab model of wind-driven inertial currents, we show that their temporal variations are related to the fluctuations in the local wind stress field. Three events of strong (20 cm s−1) near-inertial/diurnal motions are studied in detail. Two events at the diurnal frequency occur on the continental shelf. For the first, the observed subinertial oscillations are interpreted as continental shelf waves generated by the diurnal tide currents and the local winds. For the second, observations are consistent with wind-driven internal waves. A third event of near-inertial oscillations appears for most of the drifters in the wake of a tropical storm. The vorticity of the background mesoscale circulation shifts the frequency of the wind-generated oscillations by as much as ±0.05 cpd

Adriatic Mesoscale Experiment (AMEX)

LONG-TERM GOALS: To contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of marginal seas such as the Adriatic by collecting and interpreting accurate Lagrangian observations of currents and satellite measurements of water mass properties (e.g., temperature, salinity, chlorophyll concentration). In particular, to study the variability of the surface velocity and temperature/chlorophyll fields in selected basins of the Mediterranean at the meso-, seasonal and interannual scales and to assess the impact of the wind forcing and fresh water runoffs.Award #: N0001402WR20067 and N0001402WR2027

Sociologias da alimentação

Tradução do livro: Sociologias da alimentação: os comedores e o espaço social alimentar. Florianópolis, Editora da UFSC, 2004, 311 páginas. Obra traduzida juntamente com Rossana Pacheco da Costa Proença e Carmen Silvia Rial. ISBN 85.328.0290-7. [Título original: Sociologies de l'alimentation: Les mangeurs et l'espace social alimentair. Obra publicada originalmente pela PUF, Paris, 2002. Edição original 288 páginas. ISBN: 213050643. Janeiro 2003, 2e édition. Etnologia-Antropologia

Detection and Architecture of Small Heat Shock Protein Monomers

International audienceBACKGROUND: Small Heat Shock Proteins (sHSPs) are chaperone-like proteins involved in the prevention of the irreversible aggregation of misfolded proteins. Although many studies have already been conducted on sHSPs, the molecular mechanisms and structural properties of these proteins remain unclear. Here, we propose a better understanding of the architecture, organization and properties of the sHSP family through structural and functional annotations. We focused on the Alpha Crystallin Domain (ACD), a sandwich fold that is the hallmark of the sHSP family. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We developed a new approach for detecting sHSPs and delineating ACDs based on an iterative Hidden Markov Model algorithm using a multiple alignment profile generated from structural data on ACD. Using this procedure on the UniProt databank, we found 4478 sequences identified as sHSPs, showing a very good coverage with the corresponding PROSITE and Pfam profiles. ACD was then delimited and structurally annotated. We showed that taxonomic-based groups of sHSPs (animals, plants, bacteria) have unique features regarding the length of their ACD and, more specifically, the length of a large loop within ACD. We detailed highly conserved residues and patterns specific to the whole family or to some groups of sHSPs. For 96% of studied sHSPs, we identified in the C-terminal region a conserved I/V/L-X-I/V/L motif that acts as an anchor in the oligomerization process. The fragment defined from the end of ACD to the end of this motif has a mean length of 14 residues and was named the C-terminal Anchoring Module (CAM). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This work annotates structural components of ACD and quantifies properties of several thousand sHSPs. It gives a more accurate overview of the architecture of sHSP monomers

Lagrangian Data Analysis in Mesoscale Prediction Studies

N0001499WR3001